Gas chromatrographs have been used for detecting certain elements in materials. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,498 to S. S. Brody et al, entitled FLAME PHOTOMETRIC DETECTOR WITH IMPROVED SPECIFICITY TO SULFUR AND PHOSPHORUS, issued Jan. 13, 1970, such devices generally include a sample injector, a flame photometric detector, and a chromatographic column connecting the sample injector to the flame photometric detector. One problem with the prior art flame photometric detectors is that the burner is generally formed of several parts which are sealed together either by metal-to-metal seals or sealing rings. It has been found that at the temperatures at which the burner operates, the seals tend to degrade and leak causing long term drift of sensitivity and noise. Also, the material of the sealing rings tend to outgas contaminates into the device resulting in high baseline noise.
Another problem arises from the sample transfer line, which have been made of stainless steel or glass lined stainless steel. The transfer line is used to maximize detector signal to noise ratio by thermally isolating the photomultiplier tube in the detector from the hot detector heated zones and chromatographic oven. However, the longer the transfer line, which improves the isolation, the more difficult it is to maintain isothermal temperature, and any hot or cold spots can result in significant loss or degradation of sample compounds. Stainless steel or glass lined stainless steel have been found to have more reactive sites PG,3 and are therefore much more vulnerable to hot and cold spots which can degrade the sample material.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a burner which eliminates the problems caused by sealing rings between the parts of the burner, and a transfer line which minimizes degradation of the sample material.